Scintillating rendition of rare ragas

Renowned musician Manda Sudharani’s concert was a welcome change for all music connoisseurs, who were being treated to concerts where popular ragas were only heard. The Queen of Pallavi presented rare and not so popular ragas like “Rasali” and “Ranjani” and presented with aplomb

Choosing rare raga krithis and rendering them with aplomb is the forte of renowned musician Manda Sudharani, the foremost disciple of late Ivaturi Vijayeswara Rao. She gave a scintillating carnatic concert at Ravindra Bharathi, on Friday. The concert was organised by South Indian Cultural Association (SICA) and Vinjamuri family in the memory of “Ganakalanidhi” late Vinjamuri Varadaraja Iyengar.

Fondly called as Queen of Pallavi, Sudharani kept the audience spell boud with her meticulous and scholarly rendition. She opened the concert with a rare krithi of Thyagaraja in Rasali raga, “Aparaadhamulu Norva”. For RTP (Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi) item, she chose Ranjani raga with “Sada Ninu Namminanu - Sadaa Siva Manoranjani” as pallavi.

The Rasali raga krithi is Thyagaraja’s 100th composition. In the lyric, Thyagaraja seeks mercy of Lord Rama and admits his faults. Sudharani decorated anupallavi charanam in a lucid manner. In RTP the ragaalapana is lucid and tanam is melodious. She took an intricate exercise of pallavi charanam and made look it easy by adopting chaturasra gathi in tisra nadaka, similar to that of adi talam. She showcased her talent in varied gathis extending swarakalpana in tune with gathi bhedam. Mridanga vidwan K Sadguru Charan showcased his talent on mridangam and ghatam (M Hari Babu) was a scene to watch.

Sudharani then took a Bhairavi raga varnam. This was followed up by “Chaala Kallalaadukonna Soukhya Memiraa” (Arabhi) as a straight rendition. She then moved on to Syama Sastri krithi “Mariverey Gathi Eavaramma” (Anandbhairavi) and embellished the krithi. She took a speedy rendition of Thayagaraja “Ananda Sagara Meedani Deyhamu Bhoo Bharamu” (Garudadhwani-Janya of 29 Mela Karta) with a pleasing neraval.

She placed another jewel piece of Thyagaraja, “Yenduku Peddala Vale Buddhi” in Sankarabharanam delineating the charanam “Vedasastra Tatvardhamul”. She concluded her recital with a Bhujangini raga krithi “Yeduta Ninnade Baaludu” and a Thillana in Revathi raga.

All in all Sudharani’s concert proved to the best kutchery organised by SICA in the recent months. Mallela Tajaswi, young violinist made headway in showing command and gave good support.

Goparaju Shreya’s promising recital. In the short duration concert Goparaju Shreya (disciple of Jayalakshmi Narasimhan) started her recital with “Chalamela” Natakuranji varnam. She then moved onto “Mahaganapathim Manasa Smarami” (Nata) of Deekshitulu and “Seethamma Mayamma” (Vasantha) of Thyagaraja. She took “Neevalla Guna Dosha Memi” (Kapi) of Thyagaraja with a good ragaalapana and swarakalpana. She concluded her concert with “Marakatha Valli” (Kambhoji) of Muthuswamy Deekshitlu and presented with all the lyrical beauty.

Shreya’s performance was good but she needs more training to make a mark in the coveted music circle. Komanduri Anantha Souri Rajan (violin), Paravasthu Srinivasa Gopalan (mridangam) gave good instrumental support.